Licorice Pizza

So when we moved into our new house, I found speakers in the ceiling and wires coming out of the wall. You don’t notice everything when you buy a house, and that can be good or bad. In this case it was good. The previous owner built the house (he actually built the neighborhood, and this was his personal house. And we had speakers installed in the Garage, Living Room, and Patio. It was pretty sweet.

I didn’t have a amplifier that was setup for this (it needed to support A and B speakers), so I hit Fry’s down the street and picked up an inexpensive Yamaha amp, and plugged one of my Zune players into it. (yes, I have a Zune. It’s the latest thing on Earth)

That was really nice, but it got me wanting to get into Vinyl again. My daughter has one of those Crosley players and a few records, and I thought it might be nice to get a real player. I checked around and ordered an Audio Technica LP60. It’s not an expensive player, but since this was just for fun, I didn’t really care.

Of course, I didn’t actually have any records.

I bought a couple of new ones. SoundGarden, the Singles Soundtrack, and I had some from shows went to. But If I was even going to have fun with this, I needed to pick up a bunch for fun. The problem is that new records are expensive.

So I hit the used shops. I found a few decent albums for around $5 each. Some Rolling Stones, Huey Lewis, Tower of Power, etc. But then I hit the Jackpot. Our local shop Silver Platters, has a 99 cent bin. These had pretty worn covers, and some are a bit worse for wear, but I’ve been able to collect some really cool albums there, and out of all that I have pulled, only 2 have had scratches that made them unplayable. I’ve found Aladdin Sane from Bowie, Foreigner 1-4, two more Tower of Power albums, the Blues Brothers soundtrack, and a stack of weird stuff.

I go every week to see what else gets dropped in the bin.

The experience of playing a record is really just different. It’s intentional. I have to pick through my stack, open everything up, and drop the needle. I listen to the whole side. Then, I wave to walk over and flip it. I actually take an investment into what I’m listening to. Sometimes, I flip through the cover art and liner notes.

When guests are over, it’s cool to pull a bunch of records out and have everyone comment on what they like before putting something on. We end up actually discussing the music while we listen. Again, it’s listening with a purpose.

I can’t wait to see what’s in the bin next week.